The Public Eye, Spring 2008

The New Secular Fundamentalist Conspiracy!, p. 3 TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH PublicEye ASSOCIATES SPRING 2008 • Volume XXIII, No.1 $5.25 The North American Union Right-wing Populist Conspiracism Rebounds By Chip Berlet he same right-wing populist fears of Ta collectivist one-world government and new world order that fueled Cold War anticommunism, mobilized opposition to the Civil Rights Movement, and spawned the armed citizens militia movement in the 1990s, have resurfaced as an elaborate conspiracy theory about the alleged impending creation of a North American Union that would merge the United States, Canada, and Mexico.1 No such merger is seriously being con- templated by any of the three govern- ments. Yet a conspiracy theory about the North American Union (NAU) simmered in right-wing “Patriot Movement” alter- native media for several years before bub- bling up to reach larger audiences in the Ron Wurzer/Getty Images Wurzer/Getty Ron Dr. James Dobson, founder of the Christian Right group Focus on the Family, with the slogan of the moment. North American Union continues on page 11 IN THIS ISSUE Pushed to the Altar Commentary . 2 The Right-Wing Roots of Marriage Promotion The New Secular Fundamentalist Conspiracy! . 3 By Jean V. Hardisty especially welfare recipients, to marry. The fter the 2000 presidential campaign, I rationale was that marriage would cure their Reports in Review . 28 Afelt a shock of recognition when I read poverty. Wade Horn, appointed by Bush to that the George W. Bush Administration be in charge of welfare programs at the Now online planned to use its “faith-based” funding to Department of Health and Human Services www.publiceye.org . 31 support organizations to encourage women, (HHS), had been the titular head of the Eyes Right . 31 Pushed to the Altar continues on page 21 THE PUBLIC EYE 1 SPRING 2008 The Public Eye COMMENTARY ThePublicEye Judicial Watch Glories in Victories over Undocumented Workers Publisher The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, By Eleanor J. Bader M. Div., D. Min. Editor o enter the world of Tom Fitton, President of the conservative, D.C.-based group, Abby Scher, Ph.D TJudicial Watch, you’re going to need to forget the stories you’ve heard about hard- Design/layout working immigrants being torn from their U.S.-born children and deported to their coun- Hird Graphic Design Printing tries of origin. You’ll need to forget tales of workplace raids and anecdotes about people Red Sun Press deported for driving five miles above the speed limit. You’ll also need to forget about the Editorial Board 185,431 people who were deported in 2006. Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain Frederick Clarkson • David Cunningham That’s because, in Fitton’s worldview, a vast network of “sanctuary cities” is coddling Surina Khan • Jean Hardisty • Roberto Lovato illegals and refusing to allow local law enforcers to work with Immigration and Customs The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale Enforcement (ICE). As Fitton sees it, the roster of recalcitrants includes Anchorage, Tarso Luís Ramos • Abby Scher Holly Sklar Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. PRAPRA Political Research Associates POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Speaking at the National Press Club three weeks before the Iowa Presidential Cau- Founder and President Emerita cus, Fitton—along with allies Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immi- Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D grant Studies and a contributor to National Review online, and John Fonte, director of Staff the ominously named Center for American Common Culture and a visiting scholar at The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, the American Enterprise Institute—recounted a host of heinous crimes to buttress their Executive Director Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst assertion that if we want a safer United States, the undocumented must be removed. Their Pam Chamberlain, Senior Researcher flawed rationale is meant to incite distrust and resentment among the native born Helen Crowley, Development Director Amy Lessler, Business Manager Like a wily adolescent, 14-year-old Judicial Watch is trying on identities. Its website Tarso Luís Ramos, Research Director describes it as a “nonpartisan educational foundation that promotes transparency, Abby Scher, Editorial Director accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.” At the same time, the Alen Abdula, Data/Web Master group’s tentacles extend into traditional right-wing territory—opposition to abortion Interns Commentary continues on page 20 Becky Brand Miguel Castillo Aaron Rothbaum Board of Directors Richard Gross Vivien Labaton June Lorenzo Supriya Pillai Emelia Rallapalli Wendy Volkmann Alea Woodlee The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates. Annual subscriptions are $21.00 for individuals and non-profit organizations, $10.00 for students and low-income individuals, and $36.00 for libraries and institutions. Single issues, $5.25. Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add $9.00 for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. Please make checks payable to Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837. 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. © Political Research Associates, 2008. Website: www.publiceye.org Matson/politicalcartoons.com All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 59 THE PUBLIC EYE 2 SPRING 2008 The Public Eye The New Secular Fundamentalist Conspiracy! By Frederick Clarkson ne of the most remarkable, and least Oremarked upon, features of the con- temporary discussion of faith in public life is that a defining feature of the religious right worldview has filtered deeply into mainstream and even progressive thought. This defining feature is the idea that some- how God, and/or Christianity, and/or “people of faith” are being driven from “the public square.” It is a powerfully animat- ing idea for many Americans; yet it is rarely factually supported and even more rarely challenged. Interestingly, much of this distortion hinges on a single word. The word is “secular” and such variants as “secular human- PaulJ. Richards/AFP/Getty Images Richards/AFP/Getty PaulJ. ists,” “secular fundamentalists,” and just Reverend Jim Wallis with the three major Democratic Party contenders at a Sojourners magazine forum plain “secularists.” While the word has on faith, values, and poverty at George Washington University in June 2007. simple and benign definitions, the word is also the touchstone of a powerful and usu- Communist”1 smear leveled at generations the Constitution of the United States. In so ally subterranean set of meanings that of American progressives. doing, Kennedy at once dissolved some peo- often makes it a term of derision and ple's concerns about whether he harbored demonization. Secular Baiting Goes any divided loyalties to the Vatican — and Tracing the word “secular” exposes how Mainstream set a standard for the relationship between an important and dynamic dimension of ormer Massachusetts governor Mitt organized religion and candidates for office religious right ideology has drifted to the FRomney staged a speech at the George for a generation. top of American political discourse as well H. W. Bush Presidential Library, in Mid- Romney’s task was a little different. He as elements of the liberal/left. This has, as land, Texas early in the GOP presidential wanted to dissolve concerns about his we shall see, consequences for the main- primary season in 2007. It was considered Mormon faith and simultaneously appeal stream discussion of separation of church a speech of great moment for Romney, to conservative Christian evangelicals, and state, while also fomenting unneces- particularly given the personal introduction many of whom were explicitly anti-Mor- sary divisions among progressives, and by former president Bush. It was at least a mon. He cast himself within the broad even raising the specter of old fashioned red trial balloon on the party’s approach to American tradition of religious liberty and baiting with is echoes of the “Godless religious freedom and separation of church separation of church and state — and then and state. Indeed, Romney sought at once the other shoe dropped. “In recent years,” to echo John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 he declared, Frederick Clarkson is a member of the campaign speech in which the Democrat editorial board of The Public Eye and the notion of the separation of church declared that the Catholic Church did not cofounder of the group blog site and state has been taken by some well speak for him and he would not speak for Talk2Action.org – from which parts of beyond its original meaning. They Rome; that his religious views were private; this essay are adapted. He is the editor of seek to remove from the public he believed in the absolute separation of Dispatches from the Religious Left: The domain any acknowledgment of church and state; he would be president of Future of Faith and Politics in America – God. Religion is seen as merely a pri- all of the people; and would swear to uphold forthcoming from IG Publishing in 2008. vate affair with no place in public life. THE PUBLIC EYE 3 SPRING 2008 The Public Eye It is as if they are intent on estab- For example, longtime televangelist and that is so, we see the frame employed by lishing a new religion in America religious right leader, the late D. James rightwing propagandists on specific issues — the religion of secularism. They Kennedy, offers a typical religious right use and against groups or individuals all the are wrong. The founders proscribed of the term: “God forbid that we who were time. For example, nationally syndicated the establishment of a state religion, born into the blessings of a Christian columnist Cal Thomas, a former but they did not countenance the America should let our patrimony slip like spokesperson for Jerry Falwell’s Moral elimination of religion from the pub- sand through our fingers and leave to our Majority, drew on the power of the frame lic square.2 children the bleached bones of a godless sec- in a recent effort to discredit concern about In making this charge, Romney tapped ular society.

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